Lively prose and wonderful color photographs portray a veteran s passion for British household pottery.
Archaeologist and social historian Ivor Noel Hume brings British history to life through his accessible story about the everyday ceramic objects he and his late wife collected over a 40-year period. If These Pots Could Talk presents "a panoramic view of pottery in Britain and her colonies from the landing of the Romans to the bad intentions of the Germans in 1939." Beginning as a novice at London s Guildhall Museum in the immediate postwar years, Noel Hume shares his passion for reconstructing lives from bits and pieces of crockery. He describes in vivid detail the common household pottery he unearthed with a bright graduate of Bristol University and the four decades of collecting (and marriage) that followed. Concentrating on earthenwares, stonewares, and porcelains commonly found in archaeological excavations but uncommonly encountered in decorative arts exhibits, his book runs the gamut from burial urns and chamber pots to wine cups and witch bottles.
Cultural and even political history form the warp and weft of the narrative. Written in a personal and often humorous style, this gorgeous and hefty volume will appeal to nonspecialists and experts alike. Wonderful color photographs, largely by noted photographer Gavin Ashworth, enhance the historical and personal commentary. Part catalog, part memoir, If These Pots Could Talk is a beautiful tribute to the richness of collecting and the rewards of a true partnership.
Finding and finding out have been the principle joys of our life, writes Hume. He shares these joys in delightful and humorous prose that will amuse the novice, entertain the scholar, and make all readers laugh out loud. There are notes and a fine glossary in the back of the book. The text is both a memoir and a chatty seminar on ceramic history that moves along quickly. Never had reading history been more fun. The reader is forced to look beyond the pots to the people who made and lived with them...Bravo to Chipstone for keeping this quirky collection together and for publishing the knowledge that binds it. Not only is this book a brilliant teaching tool, but it will inspire generations of collectors to partake in the fun of collecting and the thrill of the chase...it should give collecting in general a boost and encourage collectors to pursue their passions. - Maine Antiques Digest
"Written by British-born archaeologist Hume, who collected the pieces featured in this book with his late wife over a period of several decades, this volume contains a wealth of information on British pottery from earliest times to the present. Chapter titles range from "Khnum and Ptah, and the Clay of Life" to "Beyond the Gas Lamps Glare" to "A Mug s Game, revealing both the tone and the scope of this book...Hume goes into detail about decoration and techniques, and this book answers many questions about pottery shapes, form, and function. For all comprehensive art collections and certainly for university collections." - Library Journal
"Chamber pots, stonewares and commemorative plates--Ivor Noel Hume takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of archaeologists, ceramics, and collectors. His autobiographical tour of the Noel Hume teaching collection is a tour-de-force of meticulous detective work, entertaining anecdote, and sound archaeological practice. Just the illustrations alone are worth the price of admission. Anyone interested in ceramics, ancient and modern, should treasure this remarkable book by a master of archaeological writing." - Brian Fagan Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Noel Hume at his best: a splendidly personal discourse that tells us how he finds the people in the pottery." - Jeffrey P. Brain, Peabody Essex Museum
This is a love story - a passion that began when Audrey and Ivor Noel Hume met in an archaeological excavation of post-war London and continued through the forty years of their married life. It is a love affair the couple shared with pottery that is related with wit and humor as Noel Hume chronicles the foibles and triumphs of assembling their collection of ceramics...Comprising elements of a detective story, a historical narrative, and the history of ceramic technology, this book has something for everyone...Congratulations to the Chipstone Foundation for realizing the value of this unique ceramic collection and for preserving the stories that tie it together in this fascinating book. Ivor Noel Hume has shown us that, indeed, pots do talk if only we can understand their language. - Bly Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
I could hardly put it down; garden, wife, and family took secondplace. In the week or so that I took to read this magnificent work I learned more about pots and how and why they were made and used, and not only pots, but about British history (indeed world history), than I had learned in all my seventy years. Geoffrey Godden, Ceramics in America
Price: $32.50
|
